It used to be shapes, but now it's colour.
Martin Scorsese has white teeth.
Peter Fonda has a neck.
It's the old days, everyone is safe, there is one chin to
every young person, the world explodes in colour, everyone
smokes to their heart's content and nobody ever comes down.
It is The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited.
Magical Mystery Tour is a double EP and LP by the
English rock band The Beatles, including a six-song
soundtrack to the 1967 film of the same name.
The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour Revisited is a
documentary about the film of the same name.
There are some good bits on TB:MMTR.
There is this pretty girl, clearly on acid, being asked how
she feels.
"I can't use colour - I can do everything."
"What do you mean everything?" the interviewer asks.
"Everything, everything ... oh. I, ... it used to be shape
but now it's colour."
It was an interview in black and white. That was it, really.
It was all about black-and-white television, and the move to
colour.
TB:MMTR is on Prime on Monday, October 29.
The story, really, is about the Beatles exploring psychedelic
drugs, youth, and the sort of freedom it should be the right
of every young person to explore.
With masses of money and adulation, and plenty of time on
your hands, why wouldn't you make a film?
And why wouldn't you make a psychedelic film?
I would.
TB:MMTR, presented by British person Paul Gambaccini,
is a programme revealing the story behind the making of
Magical Mystery Tour.
The documentary also examines the group's activities during
1967 before they spent most of the final four months working
on Magical Mystery Tour.
It does so in part with words that fly out at you on the
screen.
It was a momentous year for the Beatles, apparently. In
February, they issued Penny Lane and Strawberry
Fields Forever. In June, they released Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band. They performed All You Need
Is Love on the first global television show linking five
continents by satellite.
They met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in an unfortunate incident,
before coming to their senses.
Then, their manager, Brian Epstein, died. Then, they began
filming Magical Mystery Tour.
In TB:MMTR, you will see some of the Magical
Mystery Tour.
It was broadcast on the BBC on Boxing Day, 1967. That was
insanely early in the history of everything becoming modern.
The whole thing is put in perspective by Peter Fonda, Martin
Scorsese, Paul McCartney and George Harrison in 1993. They
all took acid.
I resent reality as much as the next man. TB:MMTR will
give you a break. Enjoy it.
- Charles Loughrey
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